News Update

LA Unified teachers’ union opposes Gov. Newsom reopening plan

The president of United Teachers of Los Angeles, the union representing over 30,000 Los Angeles Unified teachers, called a new state school reopening plan a reversal “to deeply flawed ideas” and “a recipe for propagating structural racism” during a live broadcast on Monday evening.

The new plan, announced Monday morning by Gov. Gavin Newsom, sets an April 1 deadline for schools to reopen for K-2 students, plus $2 billion in incentives.

“If you condition funding on the reopening of schools, that money will only go to white and wealthier schools that do not have the transmission rates that low-income Black and Brown communities do,” UTLA president Cecily Myart-Cruz said during the live broadcast. “This is a recipe for propagating structural racism, and it is deeply unfair to the students we serve.”

The union has not yet reached a reopening agreement with Los Angeles Unified. During the Monday broadcast, Myart-Cruz reiterated the union’s position before broadly reopening campuses: LA County must be out of the most restrictive purple tier; staff required to return to work in person must be fully vaccinated; and safety plans must be in place. LA Unified Supt. Austin Beutner has made it clear that vaccinating teachers is a must before students return.

Union members are voting this week on whether they want to return to in-person instruction. The survey, which closes on Friday.

The results to the survey will be announced by UTLA on Friday night.